Path 2

Path 2

screens

March 22, 2005

Tim Daly stars in this slick new series as the ruthless owner of a risk management company. Like Ocean’s Eleven converted for the small screen, it’s enjoyably fast-moving with kinetic camerawork and vivid colors but leaves no memory traces behind, just a flicker of attractive agents with perfect bodies who trust no one including themselves—and I don’t blame them.

ODD GIRL OUT

April 4 at 9 on Lifetime

Like Mean Girls, this TV movie is based on a nonfiction book about bullying, but takes a much more serious tone. It’s a harrowing (occasionally verging on histrionic) look at girl-on-girl cruelty, but with a strong, quiet performance by Alexa Vega as Vanessa, a junior high girl ostracized by cool, anorexic ex-friends, who use modern technology like cell phones, Sidekicks, websites, and instant messaging to torture her.

CHEAP SEATS

Weeknights at 10 on ESPN Classic

This is a sports fan’s version of Mystery Science Theater 3000, with a little Beavis and Butt-head thrown in for good measure. Comedian brothers Jason and Randy Sklar make a mockery of archival sports footage, hitting their silly stride when they take down events like a “creative breaking” competition in which contestants smash stuff. Of a guy with an eye patch, one of them quips: “Maybe he creatively broke his eye?”